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About the Justia Lawyer Rating and Reviews

The Justia Lawyer Rating and Reviews system is intended to give consumers and attorneys a useful metric by which to evaluate and compare lawyers before deciding to hire or associate with them. The Justia Lawyer Rating and Reviews provide valuable insight from peers and colleagues personally familiar with the lawyer’s work. By quantifying this insight into a score between 1 and 10 based on reviews by other lawyers, we hope to add a level of ease and transparency to the process of finding a lawyer who may be a good fit for your needs.

How We Calculate the Justia Lawyer Rating

The Justia Lawyer Rating is based on the average score given to a lawyer by his or her reviewing peers. In addition to providing an overall rating for the attorney, each reviewer must also numerically rate the attorney on:

Legal Knowledge

Legal Analysis

Communication Skills

Ethics and Professionalism

We believe these are four important yet difficult to quantify considerations for consumers and businesses seeking to retain legal counsel. An attorney’s average score for each of these areas is displayed in his or her profile, in addition to the overall Justia Lawyer Rating.

To support the numerical evaluations, reviewing attorneys are also required to provide narrative explanations. All of the reviews an attorney has received are publicly viewable.

For each profile in the Justia Lawyer Directory, we will calculate the Justia Lawyer Rating once the attorney has been peer reviewed. The Justia Lawyer Rating cannot be affected by advertising or other forms of payment. Whether an attorney is a Justia client or has any other type of fiduciary relationship with Justia has no effect on their Justia Lawyer Rating. The rating is based solely on attorney-to-attorney reviews.

What the Justia Lawyer Rating Means

The lowest Justia Lawyer Rating an attorney can have is 1, and the highest is 10. The significance you assign to that number is your prerogative. Attorneys with a score between 1-3 tend to receive unfavorable feedback from peers, whereas attorneys with a score of 7 or higher tend to be held in higher regard. For each attorney with a rating, you can view the full answers from all the reviews that form the basis of the rating.

Attorneys may opt out of the entire Justia Lawyer Rating and Reviews system if they wish.

Who May Rate an Attorney

The Justia Lawyer Rating is based solely on attorney-to-attorney reviews. Not only must a person be an attorney to review a lawyer, but the reviewer must also be personally familiar with the work of the lawyer.

To review an attorney, you must be a verified lawyer with an active profile in the Justia Lawyer Directory. If you are a lawyer but have not yet claimed your profile, you can begin that process here.